Queen’s Speech sorely missed opportunity

Queen’s Speech sorely missed opportunity to steer UK out of 'state of stagnation’

18 May 2016

Today’s Queen’s Speech was a sorely missed opportunity to steer the UK economy out of its ‘state of stagnation’ and to reverse the rising insecurity that is gripping communities, said Len McCluskey, the leader of the country’s biggest union, Unite, today (Wednesday18 May).

Furthermore, Len McCluskey said, this government’s ideological destruction of public services and its failing economic policy will prevent prime minister David Cameron from leaving the 'one nation’ Britain he seeks as his legacy.

“Today the prime minister wanted us to believe he was committed to a `one nation’ Britain yet it is his government’s policies that have supercharged inequality across these isles.

“David Cameron desperately wants to establish his legacy but it is already there in the ideological, failing privatisations, the destruction of our public services and at least a decade of lost wages for working people. It is there in the mountain of personal debt people are amassing, the continuing climb in job insecurity and the growing queues at the food bank.

“It is the misery wrought by his government’s policies that will be his lasting contribution to our communities, but the penny does not appear to be dropping in Downing Street that when it comes to measures to grow our economy and make our nations fairer, a party sworn to endless austerity will always be incapable of delivering.

“Sadly for the ordinary people of this country, who desperately needed to hear something better, this Queen’s Speech was a sorely missed opportunity. It is not so much a vision for Britain but a bandage for a Conservative party riven with EU in-fighting and the limitations of its failing economic policy.

“We heard yet another reheated promise to build houses, but coming from a government that has just taken an axe to affordable social housing, the millions in desperate housing need are unlikely to feel that a decent home is any closer.

“And with record levels of cuts set to hit local authorities, when will this government accept that it is simply not possible to deliver the high quality services that must be central to tackling exclusion and poverty when it keeps hacking away at funding and staffing?

“Furthermore with measures expected to limit the powers of the House of Lords to scrutinise government policy, this is a Conservative party that cannot shake off its sinister desire to silence dissent.”

The union’s comments follow the latest ONS data on employment which revealed that, while there are positive moves towards increased full-time work, part time, temporary and self- employment are all on the rise.